Dilemma of State Tube Wells

In the area studied in western Uttar Pradesh the capital cost of state tube wells is seven and a half times as high per unit of pumping capacity as that of the private tube wells. There is thus economic pressure to spread out the overhead costs by achieving high rates of utilisation. State tube wells operate much closer to engineering capacity than do the private tube wells. They pump twice the volume of water and irrigate three times the hectarage per unit of pumping capacity of the private tube wells. Rut such rates result in increased breakdowns and the consequent unreliability of water supplies.